Encouraged by early voting data, a group tied to McConnell donated $6.2 million to help Brown

A super PAC tied to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) plans to make its first spending in the Nevada Senate race less than two weeks before the election.

According to a report by NBC News, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) is expected to make a $6.2 million ad buy to support Republican candidate Sam Brown. The SLF had previously spent on Senate races in Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but avoided the race in Nevada, where Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) held a lead in the polls throughout the cycle.

The polls have begun to tighten — Rosen's most recent lead was around 4 percentage points or 5 percentage points, while she previously routinely posted double-digit leads — and primary election data looks promising for Republicans, who have a lead in turnout from period for the first time since 2008.

“President Trump is doing very well in Nevada and we believe Sam Brown can too,” SLF President Steven Law told NBC News.

Another sign that Republicans are starting to feel optimistic about Nevada is that National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) will come to the Silver State on Tuesday to meet with Sam Brown to make a last-minute campaign switch, according to a source familiar with Daines' travels.

Even with SLF funding, Democrats still spent nearly $25 million more than Republicans in the Nevada Senate race, between past and future reservations, according to AdImpact. Analysts and experts believe Rosen's early spending advantage – launching an advertising push in the spring during the Republican primaries – has helped keep her consistently ahead in the polls.

And the Senate Majority PAC (SMP), the Democratic counterpart to the SLF, which is affiliated with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), has been active in Nevada throughout the cycle. In the final two weeks of the election, the SMP is spending $8.3 million in Nevada, more than the group is spending in all but two swing states — a sign they expect a competitive race.

“Mitch McConnell ignored Sam Brown for months,” SMP spokeswoman Hannah Menchhoff said in a statement. “That he is now trying to appease the party elite says more about Brown’s quality as a candidate than their actual belief that he can win.”

In 2022, Nevada hosted the closest Senate race in the country – Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) won with less than 1 percent of the vote.

This story was updated on 10/24/24 at 2:00 p.m. to add comment from the Senate Majority PAC.